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Despite political landscape, we must live as disciples of Jesus, reader says

I was recently inspired on the spur of the moment to write this while sitting before the Blessed Sacrament.

As a Catholic, I understand that God has given me the awesome and terrifying gift of free will. I say terrifying because I also understand the teaching of Holy Mother Church that the manner in which I choose to exercise the gift of this freedom will determine how I spend life after death, with my God in eternal peace or separated from him in hell. I must strive every day to exercise my will in accordance with the divine will of Jesus.

It is for this reason alone that I oppose the political left. The left embraces what St. John Paul II called the “culture of death.” Case in point—the recent Hobby Lobby U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Despite the left’s attempts to convince me that the five Catholic Supreme Court justices have advanced the so-called “war on women” with their ruling, I know better.

The majority ruling did absolutely nothing to limit access to the contraceptive and abortion-causing drugs identified in the lawsuit. All of these are as available to women now as they were before the ruling. The only thing the court determined is that closely held for-profit corporations can’t be forced to pay for these morally-objectionable drugs.

And how did the left react? Thirty-five U.S. Senators, all Democrats, introduced legislation to strip religious freedom protections from such businesses. The “Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act” has the support of President Barack Obama, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S. At its core, this bill seeks to eliminate some of our First Amendment religious freedom protections. Thankfully, the U.S. Senate on July 16 voted to block consideration of the bill.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, how could I ever support a party which embraces the destruction of more than 3,000 children every day by abortion? A party which embraces the destruction of our tiniest neighbors by embryonic stem-cell research? A party which embraces the evil of contraception, and wants me to pay for it with my tax dollars? A party which is now attempting to redefine marriage to include relationships other than the life-long covenant exclusively between one man and one woman, as taught by Jesus himself?

And now a party which is willing to curtail our religious freedoms—including the freedoms of organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor and Catholic Charities—to advance its social agenda, much as the totalitarian regimes of the last century did?

Until the Democratic Party eliminates its position as the party which embraces death, I can never in good conscious support its candidates.

Our Lady of Fatima, please pray for us.

- Mike Nygra | Brownsburg